TRIANA (EL PATIO)

The Spanish transition to a liberal democratic state didn't take place until Franco's much celebrated death on 20 November 1975. It was his dictatorship that prevented the country from developing in the same ways as the rest of Western European and because of that very oppression, many artistic expressions were tamped down before they could take root. Such is the case with art and progressive rock but despite it all a few bands like Fusioon, Canarios, M'quina and Proyecto A managed to sneak in some highly developed rock albums under the radar. However it wouldn't be until 1975 when the prog movement found the freedom to develop and the country didn't waste any time catching up with the scene.

One of the first bands to ride the wave of this new reality was the Seville based TRIANA who were a little bit ahead of the curve. The band was formed in 1974 by vocalist / organist Jes's de la Rosa Luque, flamenco guitarist Eduardo Rodr'guez Rodway (formerly of Los Playos) and Juan Jos' Palacios aka Tele (formerly of Tabaca). Given that Spain is a Mediterranean country and Spanish a Latinate language with much in common with Italian, the band was responsible for launching the progressive rock movement in Spain with their own take on Italian symphonic prog only instead of the overtly classical leanings, TRIANA opted instead for the homegrown Andalusian sounds of flamenco. While the term Andalusian rock had been around for decades with bands Sabicas, TRIANA was the band responsible for taking the genre into the more progressive arenas.

The band's debut had originally emerged as a self-titled release but has been renamed EL PATIO ever since a 1984 reissue was released. Taking the symphonic prog of the Italian greats like PFM, Banco and Le Orme as the template upon which to build around, TIRANA adapted the sensual guitar style of flamenco to an overtly ambitious and energetic form of symphonic prog that implemented the classical compositional flare and passionate, romantic vocal style of the Italians alongside lushly laid out synth and Mellotron usage. The symphonic prog elements seamlessly trade off with beautiful guitar passages and the lyrics while all in the Spanish language describe the political realities of a nation in flux. Another interesting fact is that the album was released with the same seven tracks but in completely different order. My copy has an alternate CD reissue track order but personally i'm not sure it's important to the flow of the album since all the tracks are of equal quality.

While the symphonic and flamenco aspects are the dominant forces on EL PATIO, the less frequent heavier aspects clearly reflect a nod towards 60s bands like Vanilla Fudge and the more rocking aspects of early King Crimson. TRIANA would produce four excellent albums in the progressive rock style, each with different virtues before jumping on the 80s bandwagon and going the pure pop route and it's not too hard to hear how that could have been possible after hearing the sensual melodic developments on this debut. While Italian prog bands tended to have an angular edge to their musical approach, TRIANA is much more overtly melodic with easy to digest ear hooks that some may find a little too saccharine for their tastes but if one is not adverse to such easy to digest melodies dressed up with proggier clothing then this is surely one you will want to devour in delight.

While the band was technically a trio this album is fortified with sounds from the extra help of electric guitarist Antonio Perez and bassist Manolo Rosa. Basically this is symphonic flamenco music with rock extras. At moments EL PATIO displays unadulterated flamenco nuevo and at other times the flamenco is merely the backdrop and often not part of the equation at all. During the transition years when this was released it sold poorly but starting with the band's second album 'Hijos de Agobio,' TRIANA started to break big and has in the ensuing decades become one of Spain's most famous representatives of the 70s Andalusian progressive rock scene and perhaps one of the most known progressive rock bands period from the country. If you were to compare this to the Rock Progressivo Italiano scene, TRIANA was more akin to Metamorfosi than say Museo Rosenbach. This is easily accessible music even on the first listen and although it does come off a little sugary sweet, it's the good stuff embellished liberally with all kinds of yummy ingredients.